Items tagged with Google Maps
It's April 1 and this day makes many of us around these parts skeptical about oddities we find online. Google is doing something that at first glance seems like an April Fools joke, but it’s a legit thing that might keep your kids (and you) entertained while all those Easter Eggs are being hidden in the yard. Most will be familiar with Where's Waldo, the red and white stripped hide-and-seek master from books and posters growing up. Google and Waldo have teamed up to let you try and find him using Google Maps. Waldo wrote, "I’m always on the lookout for fantastic new places to explore....
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Google has announced that it is launching some new Google Maps APIs that will be a big deal for mobile game developers and studios. Google is now offering a way that will allow game developers to build real-world games using Google Maps. This means that a mobile game can best set in an environment that looks exactly like your city. Google wrote, "Game studios can easily reimagine our world as a medieval fantasy, a bubble gum candy land, or a zombie-infested post-apocalyptic city. With Google Maps’ real-time updates and rich location data, developers can find the best places for playing games,...
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Update, 3/10/2018 - Google's Super Mario Kart guidance feature is now live. Let's-A-GO! Google often brings themed additions to its wildly popular Google Maps navigation app to celebrate pop culture. We’ve seen it previously with nods to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and last year with a Ms. Pac-Man shout-out. This time around, Google is showing some love for Nintendo’s most iconic character: Mario. Tomorrow is Mario Day, as in March 10th or Mar10, and to celebrate, Mario will take over as your directional guide in the Google Maps app. When punching in your destination, a yellow...
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Disney's theme parks are wonderful places to visit, and that it true whether you are a young child who is eager to meet characters like Mickey Mouse, or an adult who just wants to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life for a bit. Taking a vacation to one of the parks is also an expensive endeavor. While it is not the same thing, you can now take a stroll through Disneyland and Disney's other theme parks through Google Maps using its Street View technology. Zooming in with Google Maps and looking at 360-degree photos is obviously a very different experience than actually visiting a theme...
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One of the great things about navigation apps on our smartphones is that they help us to easily get from Point A to Point B without having to really think much about it. They can automatically reroute you to save time, and take you through some off-the-beaten-path routes to avoid more congested roadways. The non-discriminatory nature of navigation apps like Google Maps and Waze means that some relatively low-traffic locales have now become bumper-to-bumper nightmares. Such is the case with the small New Jersey town of Leonia. The quiet community is a suburb of New York City and has a population...
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Google Maps is now better than it was a month, week, or even a day ago. In a blog post, Google outlined some changes it made made to its maps program, including updates to Google Maps' driving, navigation, transit, and explore maps to better highlight the information it believes is most relevant to each experience, such as gas stations for navigation, train stations for transit, and so forth. "The world is an ever-evolving place. And as it changes, Google Maps changes with it. As roads close, businesses open, or local events happen in your neighborhood, you’ll see it on Google Maps. When you schedule...
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Google Maps is making it easier than ever to get you to your destination. The Google Maps Interface has added street view images to the directions. The directions screen on Google Maps will now show thumbnails from “Street View”. If the user taps on the image, they will get a 360° view and Street View will direct users to the location of the turn. The thumbnail will also be correctly oriented in the direction the user is going and will therefore point users in the right direction. Google has also added a few skin-deep alterations to the interface. Some screens will now include a bottom bar with...
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April Fool’s Day isn’t until tomorrow, but many companies are already cashing in on the festivities on the last work day of the week. Google is getting in on the action by transforming its incredibly popular Google Maps application into a digital playground for Ms. Pac-Man. Google last pulled off this “prank” back in 2015, and this year’s revival is in keeping with the same formula. Bringing up Ms. Pac-Man is super easy; all you need to do is open up the Google Maps app on your iOS or Android device, after which you will see a new Ms. Pac-Man button above the standard “Location” and “Navigation”...
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Google is adding a new feature to its Maps service that parents are going to love and teenagers may loathe—it's the ability to share real-time location tracking data with select individuals or groups, along with an estimated time of arrival to whatever the destination might be. While that may sound like an invasion of privacy, it is completely optional and is something that might prove handy in a variety of situations. Tracking your teen driver as he or she heads out to a concert or some other event is just one example. Maybe you have relatives visiting from out of state—being able to track their...
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Are you the kind of person that would lose their head if it wasn’t attached? Or perhaps you have trouble remembering where you parked, be it in the Target parking lot or in a crowded downtown shopping area? Apple has a feature in iOS 10 that automatically marks your parking spot within Maps when you disconnect your iPhone from your car, and Google is countering with its own version of that feature. Instead of automatically marking a spot for you like the incredibly unreliable parking feature that is available with Google Now, the latest update to Google Maps allows you to manually set your parking...
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While perhaps not as significant as running water, Google Maps is one of the greatest modern day amenities that is easy to take for granted. Perhaps that is because it is mostly a solo experience—whether looking up directions or zooming down into Street View, it's something you do by yourself. That isn't changing, though Google is making the experience more social by rolling out a new feature that allows users to add locations to their Favorites and share them with others. Effective immediately, you can create lists of places, share those lists with other people, and follow the lists that your...
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Google Maps on Android is getting a makeover. The app will now incorporate three easily accessible tabs on the bottom of the home screen to help users find a nearby restaurant, catch the next bus, or keep an eye out on their commute. The “Places” tab will include a curated list of restaurants for the user’s current or chosen location. Categories will include “best dinners,” “cheap eats” or “business dining”. Users will also be able to tap to find ATM’s, gas stations, grocery stores, etc. There is a “Driving” tab as well, where users can input their home and work address. The tab will let users...
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Google Maps is an indispensable tool for Android (and iOS) users, and it just received some very useful updates. The app now warns users when there are huge mass transit delays and offers the option to restrict data usage to only Wi-Fi. The new features are currently only available on select phones and will be launched in staged rollouts.In order to activate the Wi-Fi feature, go to your Settings on Google Maps. It should be the second line under settings. If you are one of the few that has access to the new feature, the line will read “Wi-Fi only”. If not, the line will read “Offline areas”....
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If Microsoft’s assault on OneDrive storage tiers has you down, Google has a way for you to start earning some extra cloud storage space — and it won’t cost you a dime in the process. Google is looking to take on the likes of TripAdvisor and Yelp with user-driven reviews via Local Guides for Google Maps, and it is giving away up to 1TB of Google Drive space for your efforts. Once you sign up for Local Guides for Google Maps, Google simply asks the you help flesh out the service by adding reviews, pictures and other notes of interest on restaurants, tourist destinations, or help fix incorrect information...
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